Handset makers now making apps for feature phones

Chinese brand Itel and domestic firm Karbonn, are now working on developing various apps for these low-cost devices as well as for feature phones that work on high-speed 4G networkGulveen Aulakh | ET Bureau | Updated: April 22, 2017, 10:17 IST

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Handset makers seem to follow this old proverb by developing apps for feature phones, which continue to corner a large share of the Indian mobile phone market even as smartphone sales have slowed.

When telcos started offering 4G data services at low prices and handset makers slashed entry level smartphone prices, a large number of feature phone users were expected to upgrade to smartphones at a brisk pace, but over 2016 the transition has slowed down tremendously.

Hence, several handset makers, including Chinese brand Itel and domestic firm Karbonn, are now working on developing various apps for these low-cost devices as well as for feature phones that work on high-speed 4G network, enabling extensive use of data.

"One of the apps that we have developed specifically for feature phones is text to speech, which reads out messages that land on one's device, in English or Hindi, depending on the user's choice," said Sudhir Kumar, CEO of India arm of Itel. It is working on offering this feature in more Indian languages, he said.

Itel, the leading feature phone brand in Africa, is already No. 2 in the overall mobile market in India in less than a year after entering the country in May. "We're developing a chat messenger called OnChat, which works like a WhatsApp for feature phones that allows users to send and receive text messages for free, but does not allow transfer of files or pictures," Kumar said.

Domestic player Karbonn Mobile is looking to introduce apps with focus on rural services among others on its 4G VoLTE (voice over LTE) feature phones that are set to hit the market by next quarter. It be launched in the market.

"SMS, USSD (unstructured supplementary service data), and voice-based solutions will work through integration with payment-based USSD solutions," said Sashin Devsare, executive director at Karbonn Mobiles. "In this category we will have rural services facilitating apps relevant to the user in that segment, for example, news, finance, employment, astrology and devotional content," he said.

Market leader Samsung is betting big on feature phones though it's not developing apps on its own. "Feature phones continue to be nearly 50% of the year's shipments this year, and by deployed users, it would be 70% of the market," said Asim Warsi, senior vice president, mobile business, Samsung India.

According to Samsung, apps that get downloaded most on such phones include Facebook Lite, Samsung Apps, GP Racing, Mortal Kombat and 11 other Java-based games.

Perhaps the first company that developed an app for feature phone is Truecaller. The app, which can be used on phones that don't use Internet, informs users of a caller's identity via text message before the call lands. The app also enables video calling and payment service through the mobile number.

India's feature phone market has surprised analysts and the industry by holdings its own despite several predictions of its eventual oblivion. About 137.5 million feature phones are expected to be shipped into India in 2017, making up 53% of the overall market, up from 136.1 million that were shipped in 2016, as per IDC data. The smartphone segment is expected to see marginal growth.

And now, with the imminent advent of 4G feature phones led by Reliance Jio Infocomm, the segment with models in Rs 800 to Rs 2,000 price range is expected to keep adding users in the country for some more time.

Industry insiders are closely watching Jio's move in this space. Qualcomm and Spreadturn are developing chips for this technology.